


Stuck in Time

by blevswrites



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty Cooper - Freeform, F/M, Riverdale, b and ten for the win, b sees a picture from s2 and is inspired to write a depressing graduation fic, bughead - Freeform, jughead jones - Freeform, with the help of her main bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 02:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12356046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blevswrites/pseuds/blevswrites
Summary: It's graduation day for the core four and Cheryl is wearing a really red cap and gown.





	Stuck in Time

**Author's Note:**

> a small drabble that (i'm hoping) pushed me through my writers block. 
> 
> i'll have more for you guys soon, but until then, here's a little something to tide you over. 
> 
> the heart and soul (and beta) of this little project, as always, was my homegirl @cooperbettycooper. ten, u a real one. <3

It was her graduation day, probably the biggest and most overdone formality of her entire life, and all she could focus on was the stark red of Cheryl Blossoms cap and gown.

 

Betty didn’t know why it surprised her so much; Cheryl had always been one for the dramatics and stuck out like a sore thumb in her middle class town. It was as if Riverdale was frozen in time, stuck in the fifties, and Cheryl wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. After all, even the whole world was too small for Cheryl, hence no one’s expectation of a small suburban tragedy of a small town to suffice.

 

But she wasn’t the only one who wanted out.

 

Her acceptance letter to Boston College came in the main without any surprised reactions from her family. At one point, they simply walked in, dropped another letter on the table, and left. There was a small pile of envelopes now, from NYU, Columbia, Michigan, amongst others. Her life these past seven months had been filled with the phrase “you’ve always been a shining star, Betty” repeated with such a penchant that the words didn’t feel like words anymore, yet another phrase drowning in her upper class praise. Every new one wore her down further and further.

 

She didn’t want to think about that, so she smiled for every  _ flash  _ of the expensive cameras and honed in on Jugheads rather large hand resting on the small of her back.

 

His fingers gently stroked her back as her cheeks began to hurt from the Cooper smile pasted on her face. He seemed to sense her growing anxiety, turning in to face her a little bit more.

 

_ Flash. _

 

The core four, as her broken parents commonly referred to them. All together for their last formal picture of high school, the one Betty was sure she’d end up liking the least. She much preferred the ones taken by polaroid cameras in Archies garage past midnight, or the one haphazardly tacked to Betty’s bulletin board of her and Veronica posing under a dimly lit streetlamp.

 

_ Flash. _

 

She knew Jughead wouldn’t go very far from Betty, but as for Veronica and Archie, she didn’t quite know what paths they’d take after they walked across the Riverdale High School stage. Betty knew they’d find a way to stick together, though. They always did.

 

_ Flash.  _

 

She barely noticed Veronica and Archie break off from the pair, leaving Betty and Jughead the primary focus of Polly Coopers cell phone camera. She ignored the increasingly irritating voice of her mother, the buzzing feeling of excitement in the average classroom at Riverdale High, the one flickering light in the back of the room and the negativity constantly picking away at her brain. 

 

_ Flash. _

 

Betty curled in closer to her boyfriend, her arms settling around his waist in a hug. She soaked in the feeling of  _ him _ , tracing her fingers along the satin of his  _ true Riverdale blue  _ gown, the way he smelled of coffee and rain and felt like everything she had ever wanted and more.

 

_ Flash. _

 

She heard Veronica  _ aww  _ in the background, probably at the faint kiss Jughead had just laid on Betty’s cheek, the brush of his lips lasting not  _ nearly  _ long enough. The Cooper family clicked their cameras for one final time but she didn’t even notice, too wrapped up in her safe place to care. 

 

_ Flash. _

 

Outside, the sun seems to be dimming ever so slightly, as though finally in tune with her emotions. She should be happy. She looks it, but that’s nothing new. Betty Cooper has always been good at playing her part in a very staged image. 

 

This should be a beautiful moment of love and loss. Like bittersweet chocolate. But instead, she’s here back where she started. She started high school being posed amongst Archie and Jughead, and it seems the only change of four years time was the introduction of Veronica and their placements in the photograph. 

 

She wanted high school to be a period of growth and difference, she wanted to look and feel different for once in her whole life, she didn’t want to be that Betty anymore. In many ways, she wasn’t. But something about this whole photo session made her feel a lot like she was. Her ears are ringing and her mind is conjuring up the first day of high school and nothing feels new. 

 

Betty poses for one final photograph, her mind swimming with an inevitable feeling of failure.

 

_ Flash. _

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/juggyandbetty
> 
> thanks for reading!  
> -B


End file.
